Thursday, March 31, 2005

Bloggers Invade the Union League?

At some point in your life, you’ve probably walked by the Union League on Broad St. No, this isn’t where John Dougherty and Pat Eiding hang out. It’s one of the most fancy and exclusive clubs in all of Philadelphia. Membership is by invite only and useually means a person is a member of the political, financial, and cultural elite.

Anyway, I was there yesterday for a scholarship interview. I arrived a few minutes early and decided to browse the events announcement board. After almost being trampled by Lynne Abraham and her entourage (no joke!), I noticed the League’s “Media Committee” was holding an event on blogs. Holy crap! The Union League is having a panel on blogs?! Totally unbelievable. No offense to the fine people of the Union League, but their membership contains some of the stuffiest sticks in the mud in Philadelphia. And they are interested in blogs? Maybe Will Bunch is right. Blogs are totally going establishment.

Ah, but I looked closer at the announcement and saw the Union League didn’t really get it. There wasn’t one blogger on the panel! It was all editors and other media big shots from the Inquirer and Daily News. I looked closely to see if any of these people had a blog, but I think they were all traditional journalists.

Is it just me, or is this sort of like having a panel called “Black People in Philly Politics” that consists of David Cohen, Vince Fumo, and Angel Ortiz? Glad to see the Union League isn’t going too far outside their comfort zone.